Nature Photography Photo Workshop

7.2. SELECTIVE FOCUS

In Chapter 6, you learn about maximizing depth of field for grand scenic photographs. Working in the intimate landscape, it's more likely that your pictures will utilize a shallow depth of field. In these cases, one part of the image is fully sharp and elements in front of or behind it are out of focus. This is called selective focus, and it's done using a combination of large apertures and manually focusing at specific points.

7.2.1. FOCUS DISTANCE AND APERTURE

As explained in Chapter 6, depth of field is determined by the distances between the camera and objects within the scene. At distances less than infinity, depth of field can be characterized by a ratio of 2:1, with one-third of the depth of field extending from the camera to the point of focus and two-thirds behind the point of focus.

For intimate landscape pictures, the most common technique you'll use is to blur the background. In these pictures, the distance between the focused subject and the elements behind it determines how out of focus the background becomes. If you photograph an object that's close to its background (as shown in 7-7), you won't get as much blur as when there's a lot of distance between the object and the background.

To render an appealing background blur, the distance from the camera to the subject matter must be significantly less than the distance from the subject to the background. If you can't get the blur you want you need to either move closer to the subject or change ...